Sometimes I think I should just repost everything Jonah Lehrer writes because it’s all awesome and insightful. (Just subscribe to his blog, that’s probably easier.)

Anyhow, he had a good piece in the Dallas Morning News about what’s going on in your brain when you buy stuff. Though I’m generally pretty skeptical of any kind of neuromarketing stuff, I like what he has to say, especially this bit: “When times are tough, the emotional tug-of-war inside the brain is thrown out of whack, and consumers act like everything is overpriced. We’re so worried about the dismal economy that the reward areas of the brain are stifled.”

Crazy, huh? Basically the recession leaves us ill (or well, depending on who you ask), immune to the tricks of consumerism.